105 Covid patients dead in W Bengal

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Thursday that 105 Covid-19 patients had died in the state, 33 of them succumbing to the viral disease, and the rest to co-morbid conditions. The state government also reported 37 new cases on Thursday, taking to 795 the number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19.

This new figure of fatalities was released six days after the state administration said 57 persons who tested positive for Covid-19 had died, and attributed 18 of the deaths to the disease and 39 to “severe co-morbidity.”

Bengal is the only state that has formed a committee of doctors to determine the cause of death among Covid-19 patients.

“Altogether 105 cases have been examined by them, of which they have said 33 died of Covid-19 infection. In 72 other cases, death was caused by co-morbid conditions and Covid-19 was only incidental,” Sinha said.

Meanwhile, the number of containment zones increased. In

Kolkata from 227 on Monday to 264 on Thursday, and in neighbouring Howrah to 70 from 56.

A controversy has raged over Bengal’s way of listing virus fatalities, with opposition parties accusing the state of manipulating the number of deaths.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Wednesday said she and her government did not tamper with the numbers and that an expert committee of doctors was conducting the audit independently.

Aa new controversy has been brewing over an official order from the superintendent of Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital asking doctors not to mention Covid-19 in the death certificates of patients who had tested positive for the disease.

“The administration is trying to make the superintendent a scapegoat,” BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh alleged.

Congress’ Lok Sabha leader and Berhampore MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury echoed Ghosh.

Chief secretary Sinha, refusing to comment on the transfer, said the death audit committee had nothing to do with death certificates.